The Park Remains Awesome

It was freakin' 60 degrees today...on January 31...in INDIANA. Those of you who claim that global warming isn't real are invited to reread that first sentence a few times...then shut the hell up.

WEEEEEEE!!!

Ainsley came with me to a meeting with Sarah, and we decided since it was so nice, we should really take the kids to the park.  So, that's just what we did.  We actually went to Johnny Appleseed Park first, but the river was high and there isn't a good fence between the park and the river and I didn't particularly want Xander to run, jump in the river, and die, so we detoured back to our usual haunt: Northside Park.

Ainsley and Big Sarah
CLIMB!

Now that he's older, Xander has become more enamored with the slides. After seeing Big Sarah climb up there, Ainsley gave the climbing wall a shot. I climbed a little and tried to entice Xander, but he was just all about the slides.

While we were there a WFFT reporter guy interviewed me about bringing the kids to the park and the good weather. He asked what the kids preferred to play in...snow or 60 deree spring-like weather. Ummm...no doy, dude. We'll see if our kids make the color spot at the end of the news....cause clearly "What kind of weather does your toddler like to play in" isn't exactly lead material. Or is it?!?!

After my thrilling interview, we decided to let the kids swing. Their love affair with the swing has returned...as evidenced below:

Of course, they cried when it was time to leave. Luckily we had a sandwich for Xander and the iPad for Ainsley. *whew* Don't worry kids, spring is just around the corner. Oh wait...not it's not.

Ainsley's World

I mentioned in our Christmas post that Ainsley has started taking pictures with the camera.  I thought you'd enjoy seeing some of her handiwork. She's had three sessions: one was when Aunt Alysse came to visit...the second was to prevent a morning of crankiness...the third to assuage a busted lip.

Aunt Alysse: Close Up

Momma Lovin Xander

Toy and Game Closet

Fat Beebee Torture

Make Faces, Momma!

"I take picture of the ceiling!"

Fuzzy Sadie

Make faces again, Momma!

Sippy cups

Xander!!

Big Sarah is crazy!!

Christmas with the Stewarts

Christmas Eve

She wouldn't show us the
band-aid without opening her mouth.

Big Sarah came over to visit on Christmas Eve. We intended to share gifts, frost cookies for Santa, eat pizza, and watch the Empire Strikes Back.  It'd been a few days since A & X had seen Big Sarah, so there was mandatory running around and playing. In the midst of the shenanigans, Ainsley fell and busted her lip. The only thing that would soothe the whining beast was a Princess band-aid and free reign of the camera.

Ainsley has recently discovered the joys of taking pictures. I'll probably toss together a blog post about it in the future. You can behold her handiwork here though. I love this picture she took of Xander.

This is the face Xander makes
at Ainsley.

We had so much fun, we barely had time to get the presents from Big Sarah and the Christmas Eve presents opened. Big Sarah got Xander a bunch of fun animal stuff and Weebles. Ainsley got Princess Princess Princess stuff, of course.

Once we got the cookies decorated, Ainsley picked one of each cookie to put out for Santa. At the time of setting out the cookies and milk, A was into a hardcore game of puppy.

Puppies panting over
Santa's cookies and milk.

Once the children got all nestled snug in their beds, we got to work finishing up Christmas fixings...and I put together the overnight French toast casserole. The tree and presents were so lovely I snapped a few pics.

Christmas Day

Ainsley and the Princess Collective

The Chrismas melee began later than I expected; apparently shenanigans with Big Sarah tuckered them out. A and X slept in until almost 9:00--well, A slept in, X quietly played in his crib. Ainsley was really excited about presents; Xander was indifferent. Santa presents were first. 

I got her to look at me by
saying, "Is Santa on my head?"

Since the ToysRUs Big Book came out, Ainsley has been asking anyone who will listen for the princesses and their castle. Santa found an awesome sale on the Princess Collective on Target's Black Friday sale (what? Santa can outsource!). Grandma Fitzgerald and Pawpaw provided the castle. As she was opening Santa's present, Ainsley was insanely cute. "OOH! Oh my gosh! I've always been wanting this!" We mete out freeing the princesses all day today. She got Ariel straight away (walking mermaid is her favorite). Then she would get princesses for good behavior, skyping with family and cleaning up her room to make space for the castle. 

Xander and the Busy Box

The Princess Collective has already had many adventures--most of them naked. They're hanging out in Noah's ark naked. They lay around naked. The Princess Collective is kinda slutty. It's currently sleeping in a bed next to Ainsley's crib. I had her tuck them in...and she had to hug and kiss each of them goodnight. It was adorable.

Xander was cagier and didn't tell Santa what he wanted. Luckily, Santa knows that Xander loves puzzles and brought him a busy box. He found the busy box pretty exciting once we got it opened. But really, he was more interested in the DVD of How to Train Your Dragon that Grandma McGhee got him. He's been big into dragons lately.

How to Train Your Dragon
is engaging.

His favorite thing, however, ended up being the light saber candy toy that came in Sean's stocking. He loved it. So, Momma's gonna hit Meijer's after Christmas sale to see if they have any left over. Doubtful, but I'll check. Of course, the moment that X showed interest in it, A had to confiscate it. Notice the look of despair on his face when she took it...and the joy of getting it back.

After presents, we ate the casserole...and it was DELICIOUS. We then did some Skyping with family and then came naps. I cooked a ham for dinner and we ate. But mostly, the kids just played with their toys, and Sean and I rested; I'm still in my pajamas (mission accomplished, Sarah!). It was difficult to make the decision to not travel on Christmas anymore. We do enjoy being with the family on the holidays, but after the wonderful Christmas we had, I know we made the right decision.

My view of Christmas morning...lovely.

Santa Party 2011!

Sitting with Faith while
Santa tells his story

This year, we went to the Santa party with great excitement. I've been talking to A for the past few weeks about Santa. She's been telling me was she was going to ask him to bring her. We were so excited to go hang out with him.

Xander listening to Santa

When we got to Karen's Ainsley latched onto Faith and pretty much stuck with her.  When Santa arrived, we got to hear the story of the stockings. Xander was excited about seeing Santa; I think it was the big, red suit. But he ended up getting pretty restless, so we let him crawl around. Santa pointed out that Ainsley was being a good big sister this year, that she was working on potty training, and that she loves the zoo.  He also knew that Xander loves to watch Sesame Street and is learning to talk. Ainsley was appropriately amazed that Santa knew so much...

Lounging on Santa

When it was Ainsley's turn to sit on Santa's lap, she was very willing to get onto Santa's lap. I didn't hear her tell Santa what she wanted or hear what she said at all. I was too busy trying to snap a picture. She was being quite hilarious, lounging on Santa like he was her grandpa.

*side note* Later when I asked her what she'd told Santa, she said, "Nothing. I didn't talk to him." When I asked her why, she said, "I had candy." (Mrs. Claus always gives the kids candy.) So, we've decided to write him a letter.

Desperately trying to
escape Santa

Xander was less amenable to hanging out with Santa. It was all I could do to get Xander into Santa's lap and snap the picture before he was on the run again. I should be happy though that he didn't scream his fool head off...

My favorite part of the visit with Santa is that I got to do it with friends in the comfort of Karen's house rather than the company of strangers in the mall.

Faith, Harper, and Ainsley
chill with Santa and Mrs. Claus

STAR WARS at the Zoo

pre-wagon rejection

So, FW Children's Zoo has this Wild Zoo Halloween thing that they do, where kids get all dressed up and get some treats. This is the first year we decided to go...and It. Was. Awesome.

First off, both Janine and Daelynn AND Cathleen and Eilidh were able to come.  This became particularly helpful after I realized that 1) I didn't bring the stroller, and 2) the wagon I rented (even though we already have a stroller and a wagon of our own) was rejected by both children.

Hay Mazes and Witches

The first place we went was toward the corn/hay maze. Daelynn is totally Xander's suckah. She may be tired and want to put him down, but he'll look up at her, give her the "uh" and hold up his arms, and up he goes again.  She'll learn. Hehehe

Xander, as I've mentioned before, is more than willing to run off at a moment's notice, so it was nice that he was both contained and followed by Daelynn on this particular adventure.

Ainsley was pretty Momma-centric until we hit the hay maze, then she and Eilidh were off too! There was a lot of general frivolity and children running around getting exhausted.



Now, after the maze came pictures with the witch.  This exchange follows and I must share because it is still making me laugh. As with almost everything today (Halloween zoo is very popular, particularly on Saturdays), there was a line. After waiting forevah in the line, we walk up to BroomHilda with Ainsley and Xander.

BroomHilda: HELLO, Shrek! HELLO, Donkey!

Daelynn and I, staunch Star Wars geeks, are stunned. This is, after all, STAR WARS DAY at the zoo!  I corrected her, and she laughed...but the whole thing was pretty surreal.


General Cuteness


The animals weren't really on much display...this was all about pumpkins, scarecrows, costumes, and candy. BUT the penguins were HELLAactive.  Xander was enchanted. I've been to the zoo tons of times in the 15 years since I've lived in Fort Wayne and never have I seen them swimming around and playing so much. The temperature must have been just right for them. Or maybe they were hopped up on sugar like all the rest of the people at the zoo that day!

Also enchanted were Janine and the rest of the entire zoo population over my kids' costumes cuteness. We think that the glasses make Leia even cuter.

I think my favorite part of this whole trip was pointing out costumes to the kids and hearing people point out Yoda and Leia (or Shrek and Donkey) to their kids.  This is a *must do* for us until the kids declare it dead to them.

FINALLY the Force Is With Us

So, we'd been several places in the zoo, and the Star Wars stuff was pretty lost on us. We didn't see any characters (who were supposed to be around between 1-4), and I was getting antsy. Then we went to Australia, and we felt a trembling in the Force.

Then we saw a Storm Trooper.  Ainsley decided that she needed to stick her tongue out at him. I decided she'd gone method and let it go.

Once we entered the courtyard (of filth as I call it in my head because of all the parents that let their kids play in the fountain), we encountered several other characters. Obi Wan, a Gamorrean Guard, the Emperor, Boba Fett, and, of course, Vader.

Vader wasn't very method, he was actually a really nice guy who was patient with the gajillion kids who wanted to hang with/on him and or fight him. Sooo cute.

Will We EVER Visit the Zoo and Not Play with Lil Toot?!?

You know Stewart children looooove Lil Toot. Apparently, Yoda and Leia love Lil Toot too. I wouldn't have posted any of this pictures, but this one is so ridiculously cute, I couldn't control myself.

Eilidh kept trying to avoid getting her picture
taken. GOTCHA! On Lil Toot even!!

Pumpkins!!

Going to Hilger's

It was sunless and spitty last Sunday when we went to get pumpkins for the house. We were supposed to go on Saturday, but Momma got her drink on Friday night and Just. Couldn't. Do. Anything. on Saturday.  Saturday was beautiful and sunny and lovely...but it wasn't happening.  So Sunday morning, we sent a text to Janine and Daelynn and Big Sarah and let them know we were heading out.

We went to Hilger's because we'd heard there was tons of fun there...and there was. The first big hit of the visit was the tire swings. Xander was a bit to small, so Daelynn pulled him in with her and I gave her some pushes.  Ainsley, however, was the perfect size for the tire horse swing. She rode that one for about 10 minutes.  Luckily, since it was cold and rainy, we were practically the only people there.

I overheard the Hilger's lady say that the day before was "a zoo." So, see kids...you got to play with stuff longer and to yourself because Mommy drinks! Aren't you lucky?!

This was some sort of
pumpkin education center that the kids
didn't really pay attention to...

Behind the barn was a fun area for the kids to run around and play with Big Sarah while Daelynn shopped for her pie hole and Janine and I chat. Janine informed me that they'd covered the hay bales with tarp so the hay wouldn't disintegrate in the dampness. One of my favorite things about hanging with Janine is I get to learn interesting little tidbits like that.

There was this plywood maze thing they made for the kids, and Big Sarah, Ainsley, and Xander had a BALL playing in it.

Daelynn returned with popcorn and then, for Ainsley, it *was on*.  Ainsley will cut you for some popcorn. So, of course, I got her a little bag. She had great fun after that eating and protecting her popcorn.

Because it was raining, the hay rides were canceled, had Ainsley been old enough to know what that meant, she'd have been disappointed...remember she has that weird obsession with hay bales.  Traveling out to the pumpkin patch was also canceled, so we picked our pumpkins from the ones they had gathered in front of the barn.  It's not like we're big into pumpkin patches, per se...so we were cool with that.

Because of her big ole hippie status, Big Sarah was showing the kids how to love and respect all the animals, gourds, etc. As this was DAY TWO of my hangover, I let her. Heh.

Ultimately because it was so wet and rainy, we couldn't stay very long...we picked our pumpkins and left. You can really see how wet the kids got in the picture to the left. No, Xander didn't pee himself, he was just playing in the pumpkins!

All the cool kids drive home
pantless with popcorn.

PAINTING Pumpkins

Ainsley: Brush
Xander: Finger

By far, what's much cooler than getting pumpkins is painting pumpkins. This year, I bought a few of those minipumpkin looking gourds for the kids to paint.  This has proven to be one of the wisest Momma moves I've made!

Day One Pumpkins

So far, we've had two pumpkin painting days...mostly I'm just letting her repaint over the same pumpkins because 1) I'm cheap and 2) she's 3 and doesn't care to complain yet. I'm sure next year each pumpkin will be a Work of Art like each piece of paper is right now.

Ainsley painted one pumpkin as her "princess' pumpkin. It's the one with pink, white, and green.  I find this hilarious!

Often when painting, Xander ends up getting bored and painting on the table, his face, the pumpkin, the high chair, and then just plain trying to eat paint. Thank goodness it's washable and non-toxic.  He's still a bit young for painting, so normally he'll paint a bit and then move to the bathtub.

As she is with everything, Ainsley is a very serious artist. She'll move from color to color, and when painting with the brush is very particular about not mixing the colors together. This makes me happy because I think it'd drive the OCD in me INSANE if her colors were all mixed up. I have a hard enough time when she mixes PlayDough colors together.

When we paint, I'll do some painting, but mostly I'm there to manage the mess.  As you can see from these pictures, this time (Day Two of painting), I'm being instructed by Ainsley when, where, and how to paint, and I'm trying to get Xander to actually paint instead of eating the pumpkin. Look closely at that picture (or click on it to enlarge it)...his mouth is covered with paint because he picked it up to chew on it as I was setting the timer on the camera.